The percentage of Andalusians who define themselves as Catholic continues to be around 65% in the latest electoral cycle, according to pre-election studies published by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) before the Andalusian elections of May 17 and the previous regional elections of 2022.
The data show that, although the global figure barely changes, internal movements do occur between those who consider themselves practitioners and those who identify as non-practicing Catholics.
The percentage of Catholics barely varies since 2022
In the pre-election study carried out by the CIS for the Andalusian elections of June 19, 2022 —which ended with Juanma Moreno's absolute majority—, 64.3% of Andalusians defined themselves as Catholic, including practicing and non-practicing.
Four years later, the new study published ahead of the elections on May 17 places that figure at 63%, just 1.3 points less.
The question asked by the CIS to the respondents was direct: how did they define themselves “in religious matters”, being able to choose between practicing Catholic, non-practicing Catholic, believer of another religion, agnostic, indifferent, non-believer, or atheist.
Practicing Catholics Rise
The main change detected by the CIS is in the increase of those who consider themselves practicing Catholics. In 2022 they represented 22.7% of respondents and now they reach 24.5%. On the other hand, non-practicing Catholics descend from 41.6% to 38.5%, thus compensating for the increase in practitioners and keeping the total weight of Catholicism in Andalusia relatively stable.
The CIS data come from two large pre-election studies: the 2022 one was carried out on 7,539 interviews, while the 2026 one had an even larger sample, of 8,017 people.
Atheists and agnostics barely change
On the other end, the percentages also show stability. Andalusians who define themselves as atheists go from 12.2% in 2022 to the current 12.7%.
The agnostics, for their part, slightly decrease from 9.7% to 9.3%, while those who consider themselves “indifferent” or “non-believers” rise a few tenths to 10.2%. Citizens who claim to profess “another religion” represent 2.4% of the total.
The Centra Foundation also detects a predominantly religious Andalusia
The data partially matches that of the pre-election barometer of the Fundación Centra, dependent on the Junta de Andalucía, which also asked about the religiosity of Andalusian citizens. In this case, the approach was different: it asked whether each person considered themselves "not religious at all", "a little religious", "somewhat religious", or "very religious".
According to this study, conducted on a sample of 8,000 people, 51% of Andalusians consider themselves “somewhat religious,” “religious,” or “very religious.”
Specifically:
- A 25% is defined as "something religious".
- A 19.6% as "religious".
- A 6.4% as "very religious".
Faced with this:
- A 19.1% is considered “not very religious”.
- A 22.6% defines themselves as “not religious at all”.
- And a 6.7% declares themselves atheist.
Religiosity falls slightly compared to 2025
The Centra Foundation also detects a slight drop in religiosity compared to its Andalusian Barometer published in April 2025. At that time, the percentage of Andalusians who considered themselves "somewhat religious", "religious", or "very religious" reached 56.4%, more than five points above the current 51%.
In that study:
- The "very religious" represented 10.7%.
- The "somewhat religious", 26.6%.
- And atheists, 4.6%.
However, that barometer was prepared based on a smaller sample, of 3,600 interviews, compared to the 8,000 in the current pre-election study.